ERADICATE THE SYSTEM OF DOWRY

India’s social life has been vitiated by a large number of practices and traditions that are irrational and have seriously hindered the progress of the people. The system of dowry is absurd and illogical and has continued to be a source of mental agency to almost all people.This is one of the chief causes of social tensions and has done incalculable damage to our social fabric. The Dowry system is a social evil. It is prevalent in all parts and almost in all communities in India. It appears that initially the custom of dowry was aimed at assisting the newly-wedded couple to set up an establishment of their own without much difficulty. But with the passage of time, this custom instead of proving a help to the new life-wedded couple has virtually corrupted the institution of marriage itself. It is so deeply entrenched in our society that a marriage without dowry is almost unthinkable. Greedy persons have reduced the practice of dowry to a business transaction in the sense that in the settlement of marriages the monetary aspect is given priority over all other considerations, such as the girl’s merits, her education and the family background.Every father has to run about in search of a suitable match for his daughter. He has to arrange to pay huge sum of money as dowry to an eligible young man who agrees to accept his daughter in marriage. A daughter is thus, considered as an economic liability and a cause of anxiety to her parents from birth.The parents have to struggle hard to save a sizable part of their earnings for the marriages of their daughters. Instances are not rare, where such families have faced ruin because of these strains, as it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to find a suitable match without a huge dowry. The girls of marriageable age become mature enough to understand and appreciate the financial implication of the question and they also feel the pinch of their being regarded as an economic liability to their parents. Cases of suicide by many such emotional unfortunate girls are not uncommon. Even those of them who do not take such a desperate and extreme step are always under the strain and stress of their devalued status in the society.Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindra-nath Tagore and Swami Dayanand tried their best to create a social consciousness against this practice, but their efforts met with little success. Government itself was fully aware of the cruel and debasing effects of this anti-social practice and passed the Dowry Prohibition Act in 1961. This law has remained a dead letter like many other social legislation.The law was followed in its non-observance because of serious defects and faults in its phraseology. It defined dowry as any property or valuable security given or agreed to be given either directly or indirectly by one party to a marriage to the other party to marriage or by the parents of
cither party to a marriage or to any other person to either purty to the marriage or to any other person at or before or ttftcr the marriage as consideration for the marriage of the said parties. It has been further explained in the Act itself that valuable articles, ornaments and cash in the shape of. gifts and presents do not come under the definition of dowry.What is needed is a,determined will to fight against this merciless practice. Older people are hard to change at this late hour of their lives. The youth, therefore, is charged with a special responsibility to rise to the occasion and resist and oppose all direct and indirect ways of offering and accepting dowry. Once they take courage into their hands and refuse all proposals of their marriages associated with dowry in preference to one without dowry, a welcome trend will definitely set in. It may gather monentum and may ultimately succeed in breaking completely the steel grip of this anti-social practice on our society. Though it will be a purely non-official effort, government too can do a lot in enabling the youth to face this scourage successfully. It is a social problem and can be fought on the social level alone